METHOD OF REUSING PHYSICS SIMULATION RESULTS AND GAME SERVICE APPARATUS USING THE SAME

• US 20120100912A1
• Filed: 10/25/2011
• Published: 04/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: KIM, Sung-Soo, KIM, Kyoung-Ill, LIM, Choong-Gyoo, WON, Jong-Ho, PARK, Chang-Joon, CHOI, Byoung-Tae
• Application Number:
  US13/280,463
• Publication Number:
  US 20120100912A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/57 Simulating properties, behaviour or motion of objects in the game world, e.g. computing tyre load in a car race game A63F13/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5533 using program state or machine event data, e.g. server keeps track of the state of multiple players on in a multiple player game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/64 for computing dynamical parameters of game objects, e.g. motion determination or computation of frictional forces for a virtual car

Abstract

Disclosed herein are a method of reusing physics simulation results and a game service apparatus using the method. The game service apparatus includes a game service management server, a physics simulation index server, a physics computation cluster, and a rendering server. The game service management server manages physics simulation data corresponding to a game service. The physics simulation index server creates a spatial index structure corresponding to the physics simulation data, and performs spatial indexing for a user area using the spatial index structure. The physics computation cluster performs initial global simulation on the physics simulation data, manages initial global simulation results as reuse data, and performs local simulation on spatial indexing results for the user area. The rendering server merges the reuse data with local simulation results, renders merging results, and provides a game image to a user.

Claims

1. A game service apparatus, comprising:

a game service management server for managing physics simulation data corresponding to a game service;

a physics simulation index server for creating a spatial index structure corresponding to the physics simulation data and performing spatial indexing for a user area using the spatial index structure;

a physics computation cluster for performing initial global simulation on the physics simulation data, managing initial global simulation results as reuse data, and performing local simulation on spatial indexing results for the user area; and

a rendering server for merging the reuse data with local simulation results, rendering merging results, and providing a game image to a user.

2. The game service apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the spatial index structure comprises a first space corresponding to an independent physics simulation space and a second space corresponding to a local physics simulation space.

3. The game service apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein the physics simulation index server classifies the physics simulation data as data corresponding to the first space or data corresponding to the second space, and stores it.

4. The game service apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a simulation results storage server for storing the reuse data.

5. The game service apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the physics simulation index server comprises:

a spatial indexing management unit for creating the spatial index structure corresponding to the physics simulation data at a preprocessing step performed before the game service is provided to the user; and

a user area indexing unit for performing spatial indexing of the user area using the spatial index structure at a step at which the game service is provided to the user.

6. The game service apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the rendering server provides the game image to the terminal of the user via Internet streaming.

7. A method of reusing physics simulation results, comprising:

creating a spatial index structure corresponding to physics simulation data in a game using a game service apparatus;

performing initial global simulation using the spatial index structure before execution of the game;

when the game is executed, performing local simulation on spatial indexing results for a user area;

merging initial global simulation results with local simulation results; and

rendering merging results, and providing a game service to a user.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein the performing initial global simulation comprises:

loading physics simulation data corresponding to the game service;

identifying initially loaded physics simulation data of the loaded physics simulation data using user-independent physics simulation data attributes;

storing the identified physics simulation data in the spatial index structure; and

performing initial global simulation using the spatial index structure.

9. The method as set forth in claim 8, wherein the performing initial global simulation further comprises storing the initial global simulation results in a simulation reuse cache.

10. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein the performing global simulation comprises:

when the game is executed, receiving information about the user area;

extracting data, that is, a physics simulation target, by performing spatial indexing corresponding to the information about the user area; and

performing user local simulation for each user area using the extracted data.

11. The method as set forth in claim 10, further comprising:

merging the local simulation results with the initial global simulation results; and

if merged results are different from the initial global simulation results, updating the simulation reuse cache with a different portion.

12. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein the providing a game service comprises:

loading the initial global simulation results; and

testing for a collision between data corresponding to the loaded results and corresponding character data of the user, performing rendering corresponding to collision test results, and then providing the game service.

13. The method as set forth in claim 12, further comprising:

if, as a result of the collision test, there is a collision, extracting physics simulation data by performing spatial indexing on data corresponding to the loaded results;

performing local simulation using the extracted physics simulation data and the character data;

merging the initial global simulation results with the local simulation results; and

rendering a game scene corresponding to merged results, and providing the game service.

14. The method as set forth in claim 12, further comprising, if, as a result of the collision test, there is no collision, rendering a game scene corresponding to the initial global simulation results and providing the game service.

15. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein the physics simulation data is data corresponding to fluid and rigid body simulations included in the game.